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Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde,

Merlin Holland (Introduction)

4.45 · Rating details · 18,924 ratings · 344 reviews

In print since 1948, this is a single-volume collection of Oscar Wilde's texts. It contains his only novel, The Portrait of Dorian Gray as well as his plays, stories, poems, essays and letters. Illustrated with many photographs, the book includes introductions to each section by Wilde's grandon, Merlin Holoand, Owen Dudley Edwards, Declan Kibertd and Terence Brown. A compr ...more

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Hardcover, 1270 pages

Published August 4th 2003 by HarperCollins Publishers (first published 1908)

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4.45 ·

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· 18,924 ratings · 344 reviews

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Jun 20, 2018 leynes rated it it was amazing

Almost three years and 1,270 pages later I'm finally marking this as read, what a surreal feeling. I cannot believe that I have read every single word of Oscar's published writing. I know, they're are still many private letters left for me to discover but, you guys, I did it. I am proud of myself and I am proud of my trash son. I don't think I'll ever love an author as much as I love Oscar.

Here's to the man who believed when he died that his name would be toxic for generations to come. For hund ...more

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Nov 04, 2007 Rachelandthecity rated it it was amazing

Wilde has such a gift with phrasing, I always think about how parallel he seems to me with Ryan Adams. So many accolades so early, then such a fever to tear him apart.

Here's a few quotes:

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

Anyone ...more

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Sep 22, 2007 Tosh rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

So essential it's not even funny. Not a better writer in the English language. Also if one can have a hero in this world, I think Wilde can fit that bill. He maybe the first writer that I realize was a rebel of sorts. My first actual rock n' roll figure that I looked up to.

I started reading Wilde as a young teenager - due to the fact that he seemed to be the most glamourous figure in literature. Most of my high school friends were into the Beats or such toss as Jonathan Bach, but Wilde was my (a ...more

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Mar 28, 2009 Spencer added it

What can I say? You either love Wilde or you don't understand him, and I love him.

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Apr 08, 2015 Wiebke (1book1review) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

This was just perfect. What else could I say? The writing and wit of Oscar Wilde is just admirable and hilarious. The adaptations on this audiobook made them come to live and it was so much fun listening I often forgot I was not alone but felt like part of the audience in the theater.

I recommend this to anyone who has wanted to give Oscar Wilde a go.

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Nov 14, 2010 Courtney marked it as to-read

Shelves: library, league-of-ex-gents, irish-authors, european-authors, z-19th-century, fiction, short-stories, plays, poetry, dark-and-stormy-night

1) The Picture of Dorian Gray
2) Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
3) The Canterville Chost
4) The Sphinx Without a Secret
5) The Model Millionaire
6) The Young King
7) The Birthday of the Infanta
8) The Fisherman and His Soul
9) The Star-Child
10) The Happy Prince
11) The Nightingale and the Rose
12) The Selfish Giant
13) The Devoted Friend
15) The Remarkable Rocket
16) The Importance of Being Earnest
17) Lady Windermere's Fan
18) A Woman of No Importance
19) An Ideal Husband
20) Salome
21) The Duchess of Padua
22) Vera, ...more

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Mar 18, 2015 Fernando rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

El genio literario indiscutido de Oscar Wilde brilla en cada uno de los cuentos que componen este volúmen. Libro altamente recomendable para todo aquel lector que admire su obra o para quien quiera conocerla.

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Oct 19, 2014 Rosa Ramôa rated it really liked it

"A moda é uma variação tão intolerável do horror que tem de ser mudada de seis em seis meses" (Oscar Wilde)

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Jun 22, 2015 Amena rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Brilliant writing. Real, deep themes which one can relate to the present life. A fantastic ending. Definitely worth every single one of those 5 stars.

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Jul 26, 2018 John Cairns rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: library

It’s true, in Wilde’s preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, that thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. In fact that’s pretty well a truism, isn’t it? since the art, if art, would in this case be of written language. We are being nudged into believing what we’re to read is art, that he’s an artist. The first time I read this novel I found it cold and repellent. That doesn’t mean it isn’t art. It might be all the greater an artefact to make for that effect.
How is it the s ...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Barbara rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics

Oscar Wilde is fabulous, and clever, and impossibly witty and Oscar Wilde knows it. Do yourself a favor, don't read this cover to cover - a little bit of Wilde goes a long way!

Random thoughts:
I was disappointed to find that the popular culture image of Dorian Grey didn't quite live up to the actual written depiction of him. Apparently the Victorian's were easily horrified, and I found some of the examples of his debauchery to be head scratchers. Especially his tendency to collect jewels and tap ...more

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Apr 09, 2015 Shawn rated it liked it

Shelves: r-comp-fant-19th-dno

Okay, as recently, I'm mopping up some titles from "To Read Short Fiction Lists", genre and lit, and as I'm in the W's....

I had 3 pieces from Wilde on the list - I've previously read a *bit* of him (about 10 stories, mostly thanks to Dedalus Books Decadence series) but, for example, haven't tackled an obvious must-read like The Picture of Dorian Grey.

"Lord Arthur Savile's Crime" is probably the most "Wildean" thing here, and in it one can see Wilde's black humor and some origins of a writer like Okay, as recently, I'm mopping up some titles from "To Read Short Fiction Lists", genre and lit, and as I'm in the W's....

I had 3 pieces from Wilde on the list - I've previously read a *bit* of him (about 10 stories, mostly thanks to Dedalus Books Decadence series) but, for example, haven't tackled an obvious must-read like The Picture of Dorian Grey.

"Lord Arthur Savile's Crime" is probably the most "Wildean" thing here, and in it one can see Wilde's black humor and some origins of a writer like Saki (in one direction) and P.G. Wodehouse (in another). British upper crust life had advanced to such a point, seemingly, that one could be terribly naughty by writing a deliberately lighthearted piece about cold-blooded attempted murder, poison and anarchist bombs. Shocking! That may sound like I'm being sarcastic but actually I'm not, it's just interesting to me how levels of privilege, culture, comfort and stability (timed historically differently, of course, across varied social and class strata) invariably give rise to an impulse like this, a turning inward, a jaundiced view of the status quo, satirically and cheekily expressed. So here we have a society party of humorous cartoons (lots of witty bon mots tossed around - "The world is a stage but the play is poorly cast.") where a nobleman (Lord Savile, natch) has his palm read and is told he will commit murder in the future. Being a good upstanding chap, and not wanting to ruin his intended nuptials, he sets about trying to figure out who the least important person is that he can murder in his social circle. Hilarity ensues as poison, bombs and drownings prove ineffective until chance steps in. Of course, part of the joke is that Savile never questions (and we should never expect him to question) the accuracy of such a prediction from a dubious source, because then the ultimate joke of basing your actions on dubious sources, and the empty trendiness of the moneyed classes (and possibly their coldness to human suffering) would be undone.

"The Star Child" is Wilde operating in his Fairy Tale Mode. In many ways it is a traditional fairy tale with an obvious moral - a poor family finds an abandoned baby and raises him to be a beautiful boy. But the boy is cruel, arrogant and hateful and despises the poverty around him, torturing small animals and displaying his ingratitude at every opportunity, so magically he is turned ugly and has to go forth in the world to learn humility - which he does, by trying to complete three impossible tasks, aided by animal servitors. The Wildean punch, when it comes, lies not so much in the classically-beautiful-but-cruel main character but instead in the short and oddly ominous last line of the piece, as if Wilde could not completely commit himself to the eternal awe and wonder of happily ever after.

"The Decay Of Lying" is an essay (presented as a dialogue) and, honestly, I'll probably need to give it another read and dissect it at my leisure at a later date because I was mostly in the wrong head-space when I read it. Essentially, it's Wilde's barbed answer to the rise of the Naturalist/Realist movement in literature (Zola, etc.), which eschewed imagination and flights of fancy for close observations of the real world and people. Wilde believes this idea is terrible and sketches out what he believes literature (and almost almost all art) should consist of, how it should proceed and what its goals should be. Sui generis, inventive and imaginative, essentially - "effective lying" is the ultimate creativity.

Having recently codified my own approach to the arts (well, certainly literature) as that of a Generalist/Surveyor, I can't take an us/them, good/bad argument about literature *so* seriously. I find such screeds fascinating - not as an expression of "the truth" but as "one way of looking at things" (from a particular position, in a particular moment in time, given what has come before, what was happening then and what was to come) - even as my mind begins to undermine the argument (and, in case I haven't made my point, I'd have the same reaction to a po-faced essay about the obvious superiority of realism over imagination). These kind of essays/arguments *are* important - it *was* important that someone had them and they *remain* important as records of thought processes, as we try to move forward - except we don't seem to be moving forward very much and those records seem to be ignored, as we seem to JUST KEEP HAVING the same binary us/them, good/bad stupid/reductive arguments over and over again even centuries later (just recently, in my life in fact).

I do believe the human mind is vast and can hold many ideas, some of them contradictory. I do not think there is only one way to "do art" or that the term "art" is pretentious, or that "entertainment" is below contempt for that matter, OR that a perfect blending of "art" and "entertainment" is the Ultimate Goal for THAT matter. I do think that different approaches yield different results and have different successes, achievements, failures and traps. This doesn't seem very hard for me at all and I wonder why people seem so driven into singular conceptions - perhaps it's the varied arrogance and insecurity underlying the desperately clung-to worldviews? So, for example, when I read this essay I find it fascinating: Wilde is witty (duh), charming, intelligent and erudite and his argument makes sense - until I remember that some realist novels have, in my life, packed just as much impact as the imaginative ones. I look at what he's saying and think "hmmm, interesting that the Decadents take *part* of his stance - invention and artificiality - and discard others - by focusing on the dregs and degradation of real life". I think of genre writers who bristle at being labelled escapist and regularly chalk up straight Lit as "boring" - thus placing them in Wilde's camp - yet Wilde would be appalled to find them worrying over research, realistic detail and promoting social causes and the underrepresented.

But I'll have to reread it. There's a good argument to be made that Wilde is deliberately overstating his case so as to have a kind of unspoken criticisms of its excesses built right into the text. Still, lots of fun! ...more

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Jul 03, 2012 El is currently reading it

This review is a work-in-progress. I'm reading this whole collection, but will be reviewing the individual reads separately as I go along, so don't be all confused by the otherwise seemingly random posting of Wilde stories and plays.

I am going to skip reading The Picture of Dorian Gray because I read that just a few years ago. My review is behind that link; knock yourself out.

Individual reviews will be linked here as I go along, just to really annoy everyone each time it pops up in their updates ...more

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Sep 13, 2012 outraged rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fascinating-reads

A must-have for every lover of literature. Oscar Wilde is a writer like no other. His words speak directly to one's heart, their soul, their subconsciousness.. He changed the way I understood writing and reading entirely, made me fall in love with his every word and get lost in his ideas, his thoughts, his world.

I was 13 or 14 when I first picked up a paperback copy of his complete works on a whim. I remember feeling a little doubtful for buying such an expensive book from an author I had never ...more

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Feb 17, 2009 Cecilia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: oscar-wilde

I love Oscar Wilde. His tales have been part of my life since I was a child. In my teenager years his plays were the "shelter" when I felt sad. His work is wonderful, but, in this special edition, you can find everything he wrote, even the poems (which are not so good as his other works to me). I have a 1968 edition of this Collins Classics with beautiful illustrations and a great introduction by Vyvyan Holland. Beautiful edition!

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Oct 29, 2007 Amanda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone

Wow - why had a not read Oscar Wilde before? He immediately jumped to the top of my list of favorite authors...and easily at that! I love how an author who wrote over 100 years ago can make me laugh out loud; I love that his jabs at Americans are still relevant. So far the Canterville Ghost is my favorite, and I am currently reading the Picture of Dorian Gray.

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Sep 26, 2015 Chris rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I received this book as a gift from my dad when I was about 13 years old.
It's the special centenary edition.
It was love at first sight.
It's filled with my notes, my dried flowers (teen me was oh so romantic) and a piece of my soul.

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Jun 09, 2013 Leila M rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics

All of his work is so truthful and blunt. I started off collecting a few works here and there and ended up having to get the complete works.

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Feb 11, 2018 Fabio rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, biblioteche, raccolte, irlanda

L'importanza di essere multiforme
Wilde, pungente cesellatore di aforismi, autore di un romanzo comunque memorabile - per quanto a tratti noioso, colpa anche dei capitoli aggiunti dopo la prima stesura - e di racconti deliziosi, di fiabe per bambini e fiabe terribilmente ciniche per adulti (andrebbe ringraziato anche solo per l'Infanta e il suo compleanno), di commedie e drammi teatrali estremamente azzeccati, di poemi in prosa irriverenti e sorprendenti. Wilde, saggista stravagante e irriverente ...more

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Jun 15, 2009 Kris Larson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: plays, favorites, classic

I actually hate having all my Wilde in one volume. When I lived in my studio apartment and found myself alone of an evening, I would sometimes make tea and cucumber sandwiches and curl up to re-read The Importance of Being Earnest. But now I've got this great big book which refuses to be curled up with -- I should never have sold my individual Earnest. Still, it's nice to have access to Wilde-ian works I probably wouldn't own otherwise.

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Mar 03, 2016 classic reverie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: collections, 1800, own, oscar-wilde, irish-writer

This is my second time reading The Picture of Dorian Gray & I loved it more then my first time; if that is possible! Very poignant story on so many levels & it sure does teach us about morality & life; despite Wilde's proclaimed prelude thought - "There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all'

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May 05, 2014 Geeta rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

listening to audio book - (1)A woman of no importance (2)An ideal husband (3)Lady Windermere's fan (4)The importance of being Earnest (5)The picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde writing always wins best rating. Witty, entertaining...and the audio book was very well read.

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Jun 21, 2016 Kristena rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, fiction, in-2016, play

Excellent full-cast audio performances of An Ideal Husband, A Woman of No Importance, Lady Windermere's Fan, and The Importance of Being Earnest. I skipped the dramatization of The Picture of Dorian Gray, though.

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Jun 14, 2017 Carol Mola rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, ilustrados, relatos, digital

Es mágico, super inmersivo.

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Apr 18, 2014 Doreen Petersen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

Very interesting collection of Oscar Wilde's writings. If you like classics you'll love this one!

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Jan 05, 2013 Jacob marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Recommended to Jacob by: Maureen

Shelves: lives-and-letters, fiction-and-literature, i-own, poetry-and-drama, 900-plus, short-fiction

Psst! Hey, Maureen, look what I found!

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Sep 14, 2017 Rita rated it liked it · review of another edition

L'ARTE NEL SANGUE

"Il ritratto di Dorian Gray": http://01911888.com/review/show...
"Racconti e fiabe": http://01911888.com/review/show...

***

Teatro:

"La duchessa di Padova": http://01911888.com/review/show...
"Salomé"; "Il ventaglio di Lady Windermere"; "Una donna senza importanza"; "Un marito ideale": http://01911888.com/review/show...
"L'importanza di chiamarsi Ernesto": http://01911888.com/review/show...

Wilde ha l'arte nel sangue, fa parte della sua natura: è l'unica s ...more

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Apr 09, 2018 Jaimie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

*A Review for The Picture of Dorian Gray only* Five stars for Christian allegory. I don't think Wilde set out to write such an allegory, but in plumbing the depths of the human soul, as Wilde does so well, he certainly wrote a masterpiece about sin's affect on the soul and our absolute need for a saving grace. Wilde writes like an insider to both the hedonist point of view, represented by Lord Henry, and the theistic, represented by Basil Hallward, so well that it's a testament to his skill as a ...more

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May 29, 2018 Subramaniam Avinash rated it liked it

I found about 40 percent of this collection terrific. The rest, not very interesting. In particular, I thought the stories he wrote for children between 8 and 80 were brilliant. And so was The Importance of Being Earnest.

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Mar 21, 2017 Bcoghill Coghill rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

At this time, I am just reading Salome. I read the English translation and am now reading the French which is so beautiful. I do not speak French, so this is a bit of a handicap fut not fatal. More that can be said for the Baptist.

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About Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

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Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet, and author of numerous short stories, and one novel. Known for his biting wit, and a plentitude of aphorisms, he became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. Several of his plays continue to be widely performed, especially The Importance of Being ...more